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Originally posted by AMR1:
Before the Arabized Moors entered West Africa with Islam in the Seventh century, there was no civilization in Ghana.

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Incorrect! All archaeological as well as Arabic historical sources say that Ghana and various other civilizations existed in West Africa, long before Arabs set foot in Africa!!!

In fact, it was only later in Medieval times that the rulers of these civilizations converted to Islam!!

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Before the Arabized Moors entered West Africa with Islam in the Seventh century, there was no civilization in Ghana.

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Actually it was the Almoravids who destoyed ancient Ghana,and not the other way around. According to the Tarikh al Fattah and Tarik al'Sudan ancient Ghana was established well before the existence of the Almoravids in 1070.

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Originally posted by ausar:

Actually it was the Almoravids who destoyed ancient Ghana,and not the other way around. According to the Tarikh al Fattah and Tarik al'Sudan ancient Ghana was established well before the existence of the Almoravids in 1070.

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Originally posted by AMR1:

Ghana has no wrtten history, all was oral before the MOORS entered Mauritania and Mali in that region. So if I am in your place, I would go and hide somewhere and don't talk about sub sahra african history, because I know you guys who have not lived in Sub sahara Africa, and lived in Egypt or Moroccoo have no clue about african sub sahra history, so don't embarass yourself.

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The only one embarassing himself is YOU!!

First of all, ancient Ghana did have a written script long before Arabs, you just don't hear about it. I forgot what it was called but it was in a book I've read on indigenous African languages.

Second, you embarass yourself all the time making silly outright claims, without any support only wishful thinking!! Mixed-race civilizations, my foot!!

Stop trying to claim the civilizations and achievments of Africa as being due to Arabs or Asiatics!!!

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Ghana has no wrtten history, all was oral before the MOORS entered Mauritania and Mali in that region. So if I am in your place, I would go and hide somewhere and don't talk about sub sahra african history, because I know you guys who have not lived in Sub sahara Africa, and lived in Egypt or Moroccoo have no clue about african sub sahra history, so don't embarass yourself.

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Oral history is sometimes as good as written history. If we were to throw out oral history then we would have to throw out the Illid and the Odyssey[sp] because most of these were orally composed.

Both the Tarikh Al Sudan and Tarikh Al Fattah were written at later dates in Timbuktu but indicate that Ghana was very ancient and well established before the Almoravids ever came in 1060.

What we have in archaeological proof that kingdoms like Ghana came from earlier archaeological sites like Dar Tchitt. From Dar Tchitt we find walled cities much like found in Ghana.

You can write better history with a pick and a shovel in archaeology than sometimes with written history.

"Since then some disillusion has set in. First, in spite of all the declarations of principle, most historians are simply not interested in the results of archeology, and for the most part they remain unaware of what is going on in their sister discipline. Perhaps the last discover that truly made an impact on them was the excavation in 1977 of Jenne-Jeno, because the locality became a city well ***before*** any Muslim North African influences were felt in West Africa." - HISTORIANS, ARE ARCHEOLOGISTS YOUR SIBLINGS? By Jan Vansina; University of Wisconsin-Madison

From an earlier discussion, the following was presented. It could become handy for folks like Amr1:

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Heru:

I've read a little about the Nok and Kintampo cultures. I don't know if these are the earliest signs of "civilization" in W. Africa but they are the oldest I've heard of. How far do these cultures go back? I'm not sure myself but I think it's safe to surmise that they're not nearly as old as the Pre-Dynastic cultures of Upper and Lower Egypt.

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The beginnings of the Nok culture is still obscure, and so, any dating available is pure speculation. The dates available in various writings are based on carbon dating of artifacts so far found. As you know, material that perish and cannot be carbon dated, are lost forever in time. Sculptures and iron-smelting furnaces have been located in the location where the Nok culture was supposed to have been based, where modern Nigeria now lies.

Anyway, based on what has been found so far, this may be a reasonable but very brief chronology of what was going on in the Western regions of the continent.

CHRONOLOGY OF ANCIENT WEST AFRICA

After 12,000 BCE: Beginning of a wetter phase in Africa north of the equator. Populations ancestral to most West Africans make up the foragers and hunters of these lands.

By about 8,000 BCE: Great lakes formed in Niger Bend, Lake Chad and Upper Nile regions.

Spread of 'African aquatic culture' through this 'great lakes' region.

Sedentary fishing communities using pottery and microlithic tools become established long the shores of lakes and rivers.

Saharan region enjoys savanna-type climate. Favorable conditions lead to population growth.

9,000 to 6,000 BCE: Saharan region in its wettest phases.

By 6,000 BCE: Evidence of domesticated 'humpless' cattle in the Saharan region. Also seed-cropping (or harvesting) of grains.

6,000-2,500 BCE: Spread of predominantly cattle-raising peoples throughout the Sahara. Probably ancestral to modern-day Berber groups.

3,000-1,000 BCE: Farming spreads through the former fishing belt of the tropical woodland savannas and forest margins of West Africa. This Guinea Neolithic era saw the domestication of millets, rice, sorghum, yams, and palm trees among others.

After 2,500 BCE: Saharan region enters a period of rapid desertification, driving people and larger game animals to seek better watered lands to the north and south for habitation. Neolithic settlements spread along the Saharan borderlands and
near rivers and lakes in the West.

1,200-700 BCE: Excavations at Dar Tichitt (modern Mauritania) reveal progression from large, un-walled lakeside villages to smaller walled hilltop villages in response to drier climate and increasing pressure from nomads.

After 2,000 BCE: Favorable climatic conditions and developing technology and socio-cultural systems lead to population growth in the Niger valleys. Neolithic farming spreading south and east from the area of modern-day Cameroon. Probably
associated with speakers of proto-Bantu languages.

After 500 BCE: Advent of iron-smelting and iron use in West Africa. Height of the civilization known as Nok, which produced art work ancestral to that of later Yoruba and lgbo peoples.

WEST AFRICA: C. 800 BCE TO 1591 AD/CE

By 800 BCE Neolithic agricultural peoples inhabit the best lands of the savanna and forest margins. Regional trade networks based on the exchange of salt, fish, pottery, and other regional specialties developing. Small, clan-based villages typical of agricultural areas. Nomads dominate in the drier areas.

-800 to -500 Development of Carthage in the north stimulates exchanges of products across the Sahara Desert, managed by desert Berbers using horses, oxen and chariots. Iron use psreads into the region from the north or east, or both. Larger scale settlements appearing in southern Mauritania. the middle Niger River basin, and the Jos plateau region. These areas correspond respectively to the probable ancestral homes of the modern Soninke (northern Mande); Songhai; and Yoruba peoples.

-500 to -200 Iron use spreads rapidly throughout West Africa, stimulating population growth, trade, and urbanization. Iron-age peoples of Nok (modern Nigeria) produce magnificent terra cotta sculptures stylistically ancestral to later Yoruba and Benin art. Indirect trade continues across increasingly well-marked Saharan trails, still traversed by horse or ox-drawn vehicles.

-800 to +200 Era of Nok civilization. Bantu expansion 'takes off' to the south and east. Earliest towns, such as Jenne, growing up along the Niger on its most northerly stretch.

-100 to +100 Camel use reaches the western Sahara via Berbers living in its southern reaches.

c.100 to 400 CE Camel using Saharan Berber peoples, such as the Taureg and Sanhaja, develop trans-Saharan trade routes, linking the Maghrib and West Africa directly for the first time. Salt, copper, gold, dates, slaves, agricultural produce, manufactured goods and ivory among the goods exchanged. Soninke-led Ghana, Songhai-led Gao grow as middlemen for the expanding commerce. Trade routes also link Nigeria and Lake Chad to North Africa.

400 to 900 Ghana, with its capital at Kumbi Saleh, becomes the first regional "great power." With their control over the southern end of the trans-Saharan trade and the northern end of the gold trade, the Ghana of Wagadu can afford the cavalry necessary to enforce his rule throughout the lands between the Niger and the Senegal Rivers. The trans-Saharan boom stimulates the growth of regional trade in copper, iron and other goods, both agricultural and manufactured.

750 to 1000 Muslim merchants from the North become a major force in trans-Saharan and West African commerce. Islam spreads to Takrur and Ghana. Among the Kanuri of Lake Chad, the Sefawa family founds a dynasty who will rule Kanem for a thousand years. The trans-Saharan trade grows rapidly along with the expansion of the Islamic world. Artists of Igbo Ukwu in southern Nigeria produce fine works in bronze.

ca.1000 Foundation of Ife, the political and spiritual capital of the Yoruba.

1054 to 1070 Almoravid Sanhaja establish control over trans-Saharan routes from the borders of Ghana to Morocco, greatly weakening Ghana.

11th & 12th c. Several Sudannic kings convert to Islam. Commerce in the Sudan gradually comes to be dominated by Muslims, both of local and north African origin.

13th c. Rise of Mali under the great Mande hero, Sundiata Keita. Ghana incorporated into the new great power. From its new capital at Niane on the Niger, Mali develops trade with the developing gold fields of the Akan in modern-day Ghana.

14th c Empire of Mali dominates the Western half of West Africa, controlling the gold and salt trade; promoting Islam; and providing peace and prosperity to its region. Mansa Musa, the best known ruler of Mali, made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

15th c. Mali suffers dynastic difficulties and economic challenges as the gold fields move further south and east. Songhai gains strength. Portuguese merchants begin trading directly with the Akan along the coast of modern Ghana.

16th c. Songhai, with its capital at Gao replaces Mali as the imperial power of West Africa. Islamic learning flourishes with government patronage in the university town of Timbuktu.

1591 Moroccan troops armed with guns cross the desert and defeat the army of Songhai, which break apart within a short time afterwards. -
http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/africanhistory.html

We've also talked about iron-age in Africa here: http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/001715.html

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Heru:

Ghana (Wagadu) is usually mentioned as the first Sahelian kingdom. I don't think anyone sincerely knows when Ghana was established as a kingdom though. I've noticed a lot of guessing concerning this. I've also noticed a lot of guessing when it comes to the Nok and Kintampo cultures. Websites discussing W. African history usually don't mention the Nok or Kintampo cultures and jump right into Ghana. It also seems like we don't know much about W. African history before the spread of Islam.

Between the onset of Pharonic Egypt and lets say the New Kingdom (1500 BC?), what were these other Saharans doing?

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You are right the beginnings of Ghanaian empire is obscure. Most of the datings various historians go by, are from Arabic sources, with whom the West Africans traded in those times. But the nature of trade between these folks, tells us that West Africans were already mature traders by time of the earliest available Arabic writings, concerning these Arabic encounters with West Africans. Needless to say, the Ghanaian empire predates those early records from Arabic trades, and may well have been a mature kingdom by then. At any rate, evidence from Jenne, tells us more about west Africans in that region. The findings there thus far have shown the emergence of a city in that region and a complex culture involving trade.

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THE INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT OF JENNE-JENO
As a result of McIntosh and McIntosh’s precessual archaeological approach to excavating Jenne-Jeno and its hinterland, it has been demonstrated that instead of developing as a result of the trans-Saharan trade, Jenne-Jeno was an indigenous town possessing much earlier origins (Hall 1996: 221).

The earliest occupants of Jenne-Jeno (c. 250 BC - 50 AD) possessed iron and had a subsistence base that was predominantly aquatic, e.g. waterfowl and fish, although bovids are also found that are possible those of the domestic Bos taurus (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 15) Permanent mudbrick architecture is lacking, but there are large numbers Saharan affinity sand-tempered pottery (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 15).

Phase II (40 - 400 AD) has yielded the earliest known example of African rice -domesticated (McIntosh 1981: 15-16). The cultural continuity from Phase I is demonstrated, amongst others, from the continued faunal dominance of aquatic animals and bovids. Here too is the first permanent mudbrick architecture and this, together with the rice and crowded cemeteries, provides a possible association with the increase in settlement size and a likely rise in population (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 16).

It was in late Phase III and early Phase IV (750-1150 AD) that Jenne-Jeno achieved its greatest growth, reaching 33 hectares - a figure to which might be added the adjacent mound of Hambarketolo, connected to Jenne-Jeno via an earthen dike, of 9 hectares - and a population which was ten times greater than that of today (McIntosh &a McIntosh 1981: 16, Hall 1996: 227). The shallower Hambarketolo deposits of 3 metres, suggest a later date for the origin of the city by comparison with and functioning part of Jenne-Jeno at its height (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 16-17).
Both Hambarketolo and Jenne-Jeno declined during Phase IV and were abandoned, although the causes are yet unclear (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 17). A possible explanation is that the start of the abandonment occurs in the same period as that reported by al-Sa’di for the conversion of Jenne-Jeno to Islam, in the thirteenth century AD (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 17).

The excavators hypothesise that the new-converted ruler and/or the elite of Jenne-Jeno founded a new Islamic, city (Jenne) on a new unconnected site (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 17). Control of trade belonged to native Muslim merchants and the new city replaced the old as the centre of economic activities, a view reinforced by the surviving historical records (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 17).

To examine the extent of urbanism, it is crucial to look closely at the surrounding countryside in an attempt to identify a system of hierarchical settlements on the premise that the city is a settlement providing specialised functions in relations with those around it (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 17). Of those 42 sites within the 25km survey area reported by the excavators, none had been abandoned before Phase III whilst roughly three-quarters had by the close of Phase IV (c. 1400 AD).

These sites had been occupied for hundreds of years previously (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 18). The surrounding lands of Jenne-Jeno display the greatest site density in the late Phase II and early Phase IV, after which decline is evident (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 18). All the indirect evidence, including the ceramic and feature categories, points towards Jenne-Jeno being the centre of an integrated settlement hierarchy with its hinterland.

Thus the survey results confirm the archaeological evidence from Jenne-Jeno itself - that there was a rapid development during Phase III between 400-900 AD, and that the survey sites hit their greatest density at roughly the same time (late Phase III - early Phase IV) that Jenne-Jeno reached its largest growth extent (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 19). Jenne-Jeno’s decline was part of the general population reorganisation that affected other floodplain settlement sites also in the western Inland Niger Delta, the causes of which are unknown but which preceded the various political disturbances created by the Bambara and Fulani migrations (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 19).

The early expansion of Jenne-Jeno in the first centuries of the first millennium was likely due to the local and regional Inland Delta and adjacent area trade networks developing. Its position at the boundary of the two ecology zones of the dry savanna and the Sahel, together with the lack of stone and iron ore on its alluvial plain, gave the settlement great opportunities of involvement as inter-regional trade expanded (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 19).

The Inland Niger Delta possess no iron ore right for smelting, and so the slag at Jenne-Jeno and other sites within the survey area mentioned above must have been imported either in the form of iron or bloomery iron that had remnants of slag attached to it (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 19). Because of weight and easier and cheaper transport, the latter option is probably the correct one. The excavators believe that the source of the iron ore is Benedougou and that the trade stretches back close to Jenne-Jeno’s origins (McIntosh & McIntosh 1981: 19, 20).

THE INTERNAL DEVELOPMENT OF GHANA
Although the Ghana Empire is the earliest historically documented kingdom in the West African Sahel, it is in fact the second complex political system that arose in this area (Munson 1980: 457). The historical records of Ghana come from Arab sources dating between 800 and 1650 AD, but Ghana had been in existence for long before then and was centred in the present-day Sahal region of south-eastern Mauritania and western Mali. (Munson 1980: 457) - courtesy of Mikey Brass

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Originally posted in: http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/001743.html

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Originally posted by ausar:

Oral history is sometimes as good as written history. If we were to throw out oral history then we would have to throw out the Illid and the Odyssey[sp] because most of these were orally composed.

Both the Tarikh Al Sudan and Tarikh Al Fattah were written at later dates in Timbuktu but indicate that Ghana was very ancient and well established before the Almoravids ever came in 1060.

What we have in archaeological proof that kingdoms like Ghana came from earlier archaeological sites like Dar Tchitt. From Dar Tchitt we find walled cities much like found in Ghana.

You can write better history with a pick and a shovel in archaeology than sometimes with written history.

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Of course you are correct.

“...Therefore meaningful reconstructions can only be undertaken when enough sites have been excavated and when the diversity of artifacts and features recovered is sufficient to make such a surprise very unlikely. The second condition is as important as the first. In the case of Zambia, for instance, there are plenty of excavated sites, but the diversity of artefacts and features recovered is still too narrow to allow for a satisfactory reconstruction.

As to complementary strength, an excellent illustration of this is the case of Daboya, a late urban site in Ghana. Daboya was already an old and sizeable settlement when it became part of the Gonja kingdom before 1600. In the later eighteenth century Gonja itself was overrun by Asante, to which it became tributary. Much of the known information about the kingdom stems from the Kitab Ghunja, compiled ca. 1751. Yet excavations at Gonja showed that both the Gonja and the Asante conquests remain invisible on the site.144 One might conclude from this that the "resolution" of archeological data is not good enough to capture even momentous political events. Be that as it may, what one should conclude is that even these momentous political events left little mark on the daily lives and living standards of the inhabitants of Daboya. In other words, the successive political upheavals were of little moment to the whole of the population. Hitherto historians had not appreciated how much the Kitab Ghunja had misrepresented the past by elevating the experience of a small political and religious minority to the level of a universal upheaval. The archeological record in this case documents the fate of ordinary people and thereby substantially alters the accepted reconstruction.

Other excavations of historically well-documented sites bring similar lessons relating to the majority of the population by showing, for instance, to what degree and in what ways they were affected by European imports or the nearby presence of European settlements or by political upheavals.145 One lesson of archeology then is the danger of overstressing the importance of single events, usually political upheavals, and the need to focus more on daily life, daily routines, and the standards of living which affect the majority of the population--in short, on all those factors which are taken as known by most written or oral accounts and yet give substance and meaning to the events described in such accounts.” - HISTORIANS, ARE ARCHEOLOGISTS YOUR SIBLINGS? By Jan Vansina; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Originally posted in: http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/001727.html

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Civilization, meaning city, state, laws, regional power.

This did not happen as you state above, until kambi Saleh in the 8th century in fact, after the Moors became influential in the area.

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The Moors were never influential. It was the Almoravids who destoyed ancient Ghana.

Walled cities already existed around Dhar Tchitt. Ghana was a regional power and state that traded in gold.

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Originally posted by AMR1:
Civilization, meaning city, state, laws, regional power.

This did not happen as you state above, until kambi Saleh in the 8th century in fact, after the Moors became influential in the area.

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Are you retarded [in reading] or is it a question of a language barrier?...because, you obviously missed out on the post I just provided.

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Originally posted by AMR1:
Civilization, meaning city, state, laws, regional power.

This did not happen as you state above, until kambi Saleh in the 8th century in fact, after the Moors became influential in the area.

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You are dead wrong! First of all, before Ancient Ghana was an Islamic nation, it was a Jewish nation...akin to Timbuktu. But then they (just like the people of Timbuktu) were forced to convert to Islam once the arab infleunce became too strong. Gain some knowledge of Eldad the Danite. It was the Za Dynasty that began the Empire of Ghana and they were Jewish in religion and claimed connection to the Tribes of Israel. Now you may believe that or not, but the point is A.G. was VERY well equipped from the beginning.

[This message has been edited by Mon_Savage (edited 22 June 2005).]

Ancient Ghana derived power and wealth from gold and the introduction of the camel during the Trans-Saharan trade increased the quantity of goods that were transported. Majority of the knowledge of Ghana comes from the Arab writers. Al-Hamdani, for example, describes Ghana as having the richest gold mines on earth. These mines were situated at Bambuk, on the upper Senegal river. The Soninke people also sold slaves, salt and copper in exchange for textiles, beads and finished goods. They built their capital city, Kumbi Saleh, right on the edge of the Sahara and the city quickly became the most dynamic and important southern terminus of the Saharan trade routes. Kumbi Saleh became the focus of all trade, with a systematic form of taxation. Later on Audaghust became another commercial centre.

The wealth of ancient Ghana is mythically explained in the tale of Bida, the black snake. This snake demanded an annual sacrifice in return for guaranteeing prosperity in the Kingdom, therefore each year a virgin was offered up for sacrifice, until one year, the fiancé (Mamadou Sarolle) of the intended victim rescued her. Feeling cheated of his sacrifice, Bida took his revenge on the region, a terrible drought took a hold of Ghana and gold mining began to decline. There is evidence found by archaeologists that confirms elements of the story, showing that until the 12th Century, sheep, cows and even goats were abundant in the region.

The route taken by traders of the Maghreb to Ghana started in North Africa in Tahert, coming down through Sjilmasa in Southern Morocco. From there the trail went south and inland, running parallel with the coast, then round to the south-east through Awdaghust and ending up in Kumbi Saleh - the royal town of Ancient Ghana. Inevitably the traders brought Islam with them.

The Islamic community at Kumbi Saleh remained a separate community quite a distance away from the King's palace. It had its own mosques and schools, but the King retained traditional beliefs. He drew on the bookkeeping and literary skills of Muslim scholars to help run the administration of the territory. The state of Takrur to the west had already adopted Islam as its official religion and established closer trading ties with North Africa.

There were numerous reasons for the decline of Ghana. The King lost his trading monopoly, at the same time drought began and had a long-term effect on the land and its ability to sustain cattle and cultivation. Within the Arab tradition, there is the knowledge that the Almoravid Muslims came from North Africa and invaded Ghana. Other interpretations are that the Almoravid influence was gradual and did not involve any form of military takeover.

In the 11th and 12th Century, new gold fields began to be mined at Bure (modern Guinea) out of commercial Ghana and new trade routes were opening up further east. Ghana then became the target of attacks by the Sosso ruler, Sumanguru. From this conflict in 1235 came the Malinke people under a new dynamic ruler, Sundiata Keita and soon became eclipsed by the Mali Empire of Sundiata.

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King_Scorpion:

You are dead wrong! First of all, before Ancient Ghana was an Islamic nation, it was a Jewish nation...akin to Timbuktu.

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It is certainly possible there were Jewish people in West Africa then, but where can I find concrete corroboration on this?

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King_Scorpion:
But then they (just like the people of Timbuktu) were forced to convert to Islam once the arab infleunce became too strong.

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It appears that the West African leaders at the time, on their own free-will took to Islam, and its spread was gradual. Do you have evidence of it being forced upon them?

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King_Scorpion:
Gain some knowledge of Eldad the Danite. It was the Za Dynasty that began the Empire of Ghana and they were Jewish in religion and claimed connection to the Tribes of Israel.

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Again, corroboration!

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King_Scorpion:
Now you may believe that or not, but the point is A.G. was VERY well equipped from the beginning.

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I can agree with you on that point!

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Originally posted by AMR1:
history of ancient ghana started in 8th century by moors, they were arabized people in North Africa from that time.

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Where is your evidence that ancient Ghana actually starts at this timeframe, and that the Moors were responsible? Making claims that fly in the face of evidence, seems to be your trademark.

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Amr1:
Ancient Ghana derived power and wealth from gold and the introduction of the camel during the Trans-Saharan trade increased the quantity of goods that were transported.

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Ancient Ghanaian people already had trade skills before the coming of Arabs. How do you think they were able to be a part of the Trans-Saharan trade to begin with?

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Amr1:
Majority of the knowledge of Ghana comes from the Arab writers. Al-Hamdani, for example, describes Ghana as having the richest gold mines on earth. These mines were situated at Bambuk, on the upper Senegal river. The Soninke people also sold slaves, salt and copper in exchange for textiles, beads and finished goods. They built their capital city, Kumbi Saleh, right on the edge of the Sahara and the city quickly became the most dynamic and important southern terminus of the Saharan trade routes. Kumbi Saleh became the focus of all trade, with a systematic form of taxation. Later on Audaghust became another commercial centre...blah, blah, blah!

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The 'story telling' is well and good, but you have yet to substantiate your wild senarios of how the Ghanian culture came into being by the Moors, or the Arabs. Available evidence profoundly contradicts you.

Mon_Savage, the thread was originally a cut and past article about ancient Ghana. If you read the thread its a question asking if ancient Ghana is older than ancient Egyptian civlization.

The conversation then flipped saying Moors from Northern Africa was responsible for the civlization of Ghana. This is how the subject of Arabs came up,and thus it continued from here.

Ancient Ghana[Wangara] was more than grass houses as you put it. It was a complex city state that existed well before the inception of Islam into Sahelian Africa. The city-state of Ghana grew out of earlier communities in Southern Mauritania known as Dar Tchitt and Djenne around modern day Mali. All had trade and craft guilds well before the coming of Islamic immigrants. Also instead of helping Ghana further progress the Almoravids actually destroyed ancient Ghana.

It's more than possible....the people of Ancient Timbuktu actually wrote about it. It's written on one of their manuscripts. But unfortunently, what's exactly written on it hasn't been disclosed yet. Until the manuscripts are deciphered we'll never know. The Lemba and Falasha aren't the only tribes that claim Jewish ancestry. I heard about Ghana's claim via a book called "From Babylon to Timbuktu." You should also do some research on Eldad the Danite. I'll try to see if I can pull up some things on him.

It appears that the West African leaders at the time, on their own free-will took to Islam, and its spread was gradual. Do you have evidence of it being forced upon them?

When I said forced, it didn't mean by the sword. I meant against their free will. As you know, the arabs controlled all or at least the major trade routes. What they would do is "persuade" the black African leaders to convert to their religion or they wouldn't let them use the trade routes. Thus crippling their empire....not to mention the black leaders didn't want to start a war....so they converted. At first, yes, it was just the leaders. But as time passed the regular citizens converted as well.

One thing that argues against the so-called Jews founding Ghana is that the king was matrilineal and not patrilineal.

There are two books in Timbuktu called the Tarikh al Fattah and Tarikh al-Sudan that write about the ancient kingdom of Ghana. Both these manuscripts exist,and have been translated by scholars.

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Ausar:
Know you want to replace the Moors bringing civlization to ancient Ghana with Hebrews that migrated into Western Africa. Why can't the indigenous Africans develop their own kingdoms without interaction from other people? This is nothing but a rehash of the Hamitic Hypothesis with a biblical twist.
One thing that argues against the so-called Jews founding Ghana is that the king was matrilineal and not patrilineal.

There are two books in Timbuktu called the Tarikh al Fattah and Tarikh al-Sudan that write about the ancient kingdom of Ghana. Both these manuscripts exist,and have been translated by scholars.

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Couldn't agree more.

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King_Scorpion:
When I said forced, it didn't mean by the sword. I meant against their free will. As you know, the arabs controlled all or at least the major trade routes. What they would do is "persuade" the black African leaders to convert to their religion or they wouldn't let them use the trade routes. Thus crippling their empire....not to mention the black leaders didn't want to start a war....so they converted. At first, yes, it was just the leaders. But as time passed the regular citizens converted as well.

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Lest one is under the impression that the West Africans were submissive, think again.

Here is an example by Stephen Cory of the University of California at Santa Barbara:

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The expansion of Islam in the sub-Saharan lands during the thirteen and fourteenth centuries created another bond between the two areas. As mentioned before, it was North Africans [not Arabs] who first brought Islam into these regions, through their contacts of trade and travel.

As Islam expanded south of the Sahara, it took on a different flavor than it had in the northern part of the continent. Yet, it never completely lost its connections with North African Islam. Black African scholars kept themselves abreast of intellectual and political developments in such northern centers as Cairo and Fes, and those Africans who were fortunate enough to make the pilgrimage to Mecca passed through these lands, further strengthening connections. Sometimes influences would actually run in the other direction. In fact, it was nomad tribes from the southern Sahara who established the famous Almoravid dynasty, which ruled the western Maghrib and al-Andalus for over one hundred years.

...In 1557, the Sadi sultan Muhammad al-Shaykh launched an invasion of the salt mines of Taghaza, which had been under the control of the West African Songhay dynasty to that time. Salt was an important element in that it served as the main commodity that was traded for gold. Muhammad al-Shaykh was unable to follow up on this victory, however, since he was murdered by Turkish mercenaries shortly afterwards. However, this same interest in the south would be shown by the son of Muhammad al-Shaykh [who happens to be Al-Mansur] in the 1580�s, but this time with a slightly different thrust...

[On Al-Mansur's desire to control lands south]
The region was certainly tempting economically, due to the wealth that was generated by the gold and slave trades originating in West Africa. Al-Mansur believed that his possession of firearms and the modern military practices utilized by his army should enable him to triumph over the swords, spears, and tribal confederations available to the Songhay state...

In the meantime, al-Mansur made concrete plans to exert his authority over the Islamic states of sub-Saharan Africa, using the ancient theory of the caliphate as his justification...It was in his role as the rightful caliph over the Islamic world that al-Mansur made his approach to the Islamic rulers of the kingdoms bordering the Sahara on the south. In letters written to the rulers of Bornu, Kebbi, and Songhay, al-Mansur asserted his caliphal supremacy and maintained that he was only attempting to restore Islamic unity as God intended it, under the rightful leadership of the family of the Prophet.The sultan's letters to the sub-Saharan monarchs emphasized that he needed their support in order to stem the progress of the unbelieving Europeans, and to fulfill his role as leader of holy war to advance the expansion of Islam. Nowhere in his letters did al-Mansur ever indicate that he viewed the sub-Saharan lands as a different region from his own territory. Instead, the clear implication of his message was that, as members of Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam), the sub-Saharan Africans should willingly submit to al-Mansur as the rightful caliph over all Muslims. Submission would bring blessing and prosperity, while resistance would bring destruction. The Sadi sultan seems to have been envisioning the re-establishment of the caliphate in the western lands of Islam; a caliphate that would span the Sahara on both sides, and would serve as a challenge to Ottoman supremacy...

...the long-standing economic and religious connections between North and West Africa only encouraged the sultan to conceive of these two areas as being part of one community, which ought to be linked politically as well. He argued that, as a sharif, he was uniquely qualified to lead this community, and that the rulers of the sub-Saharan Islamic states ought to recognize and submit to his authority.

Forced Unity? Al-Mansur's Invasion of West Africa

As is often the case, the practice of implementing al-Mansur's ideas of a western caliphate was more difficult than its theoretical conception. The sultan spent several years in negotiation with the sub-Saharan Borno and Songhay states, and in preparing his army for an invasion to the south. Although he obtained a written oath of allegiance from the sultan of the Bornu,12 al-Mansur's attempts to exert his authority over the Songhay met with outright refusal from their leader, Askia Ishaq II. As a result, the Sadi sultan launched his invasion of Songhay in 1591.

Due to their enormous advantage in firearms and military organization, al-Mansur's troops were initially quite successful in conquering the region and annexing it to the Moroccan empire. Efforts were made to persuade the most influential members of West African society to willingly give their allegiance to al-Mansur, and to stabilize the area under new leadership.14 Following this victory, the Sadi scribe al-Fishtali would proclaim triumphantly, The command of al-Mansur was effective from Nuba to the ocean on the western side . . . (and he gained) marvelous authority that had never existed for anyone before him."

However, it would turn out that al-Mansur�s authority south of the Sahara was ephemeral at best. After a short period of time, a Songhay resistance movement arose, resulting in many years of armed struggle between the Moroccan conquerors and the Songhay resistance, and dooming al-Mansur's project to eventual failure.

If, as I have argued, the regions north and south of the Sahara have long enjoyed many and varied connections, and if al-Mansur's justification for his annexation of West Africa fit in with traditional Islamic ideology, at least two questions are raised by this failure: 1) What were the reasons for the short duration of effective Moroccan authority in West Africa? 2) Why did the West Africans fail to buy into al-Mansur's explanation for the invasion?

Regarding the first question, many historians explain this failure as being due to several factors. First of all, they believe that al-Mansur was simply interested in milking profits from the West African gold mines, and that he made no effort to develop the infrastructure for a more permanent annexation of Songhay lands. Secondly, they argue that Morocco lacked the capacity to effectively incorporate the large Songhay territory, separated from southern Morocco by miles of desert wasteland, into the Moroccan empire. Although their superiority in weaponry gave the Moroccans an initial advantage in their battle with the Songhay, the permanent annexation of this territory to Morocco was a different story.

Regarding the first question, many historians explain this failure as being due to several factors. First of all, they believe that al-Mansur was simply interested in milking profits from the West African gold mines, and that he made no effort to develop the infrastructure for a more permanent annexation of Songhay lands. Secondly, they argue that Morocco lacked the capacity to effectively incorporate the large Songhay territory, separated from southern Morocco by miles of desert wasteland, into the Moroccan empire. Although their superiority in weaponry gave the Moroccans an initial advantage in their battle with the Songhay, the permanent annexation of this territory to Morocco was a different story.

The Moroccan historian Abd al-Krim Kurayyim contests the first explanation for the failure of al-Mansur's endeavor to annex West Africa to his empire. He argues that the Moroccans attempted to establish a stable administration for governing the country, and even made efforts to improve agricultural methods in the region. Kurayyim maintains that not all of the Songhay resented the arrival of the Moroccans, and lists a number of cases in which the invaders received a warm response.16 He places most of the blame for the disorder that befell West Africa after the Moroccan invasion upon the Songhay leaders who continued to resist Moroccan authority, leading to a protracted guerilla war throughout the Songhay regions.17 In addition, misfortunes that occurred within Morocco itself, including an extended plague after 1596, could be adduced to help explain the Moroccan failure to capitalize upon their military victory through effectively annexing the Songhay territory.

Another scholar, Lansine Kaba, disagrees with Kurayyim's favorable interpretation of Moroccan efforts to integrate the Songhay lands into their empire. Kaba mostly attributes the Moroccan failure to the second factor listed above, i.e. that Morocco lacked the capacity to effectively incorporate Songhay territory. Kaba argues that, while al-Mansur had developed a highly sophisticated army (by sixteenth-century standards), the Moroccan governmental, societal, and economic infrastructure lacked the same degree of sophistication.

Indeed, in order to develop such an army, al-Mansur had been forced to rely upon mercenary troops mostly recruited from Andalusian refugees, European renegades, and Turkish mercenaries. Since these troops lacked any long-term identification with Morocco itself, they were untrustworthy, and tended to be overly harsh in their administration, and unreliable in their commitment to the sultan's goals. Finally, Kaba argues that al-Mansur's invasion of the Songhay was carried on mostly with Europe in view. Desirous of keeping pace with the European powers, al-Mansur sought to unite West Africa under his authority, in order that he might be able to utilize its resources to strengthen his position vis-a-vis the other Mediterranean states. However, instead of achieving this goal, Kaba believes that the invasion turned out to be a complete disaster, which finally swallowed up both the conqueror and the conquered.

Not only was the effect of continued warfare devastating to the economy and society of West Africa, but the cost of supporting a long-distance foreign war placed undue strain upon the Moroccan economy. It drained away resources that could have been better used elsewhere in developing an infrastructure that would be able to compete economically with the Europeans.

Regarding my second question (as to why the West Africans did not buy into al-Mansur's justification for his invasion), I again refer to the works of Kurayyim and Kaba. As Kurayyim points out, the sources indicate that a number of the Songhay leaders did initially welcome the Moroccans, and seemed prepared to cooperate with their authority. However, the documented abuses undertaken against the local population by Moroccan troops seem to have turned the populace against the invaders. This hearkens back to Kaba's point that the mercenary nature of al-Mansur's troops may not have been the most advantageous for establishing a long-term connection with the Songhay lands.

Indeed, it seems that most West Africans believed that al-Mansur's claims to unify the Islamic community were made for self-serving reasons, and not for the purpose of advancing the cause of Islam. Their experience of this unification project was violence, turmoil, the loss of their possessions, and general anarchy.19 Whether the rebellious Songhay are blamed for this chaos (per Kurayyim), the mercenary soldiers (per Kaba), or the disingenuous aims of al-Mansur himself (per many other historians, including Dahiru Yahya,) 20 the end result was not conducive to garnering West African support for a greater Western Caliphate under the headship of al-Mansur.

Kaba makes one other observation that is relevant to our discussion. Regarding the Songhay resistance, he writes that the retreat of the Askia and his entourage into the historic Songhay heartland galvanized the resistance and gave a national character to it.21 In a footnote, Kaba explains that resistance to the abuses inflicted upon the populace by the Moroccan army assumed a national character in that it entailed broad trans-ethnic feelings hostile to alien rule and based on some type of common historical traditions.22 Thus, Kaba alludes to the beginnings of proto-nationalist feelings in West Africa, some of the earliest forebodings of a mindset that was to become predominant in Africa and the rest of the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.23

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Source: http://www.historycooperative.org/proceedings/interactions/cory.html

Other notes possibly of interest, are from Jan Vansina:

"To me the most significant result of the finds in Bure is that some of the styles recall those of the coeval figures at Yelwa, some recall coeval or later Inner Niger Delta figures, and some remind one of the subactual funerary potteries near the coasts of Togo and Benin.78 Asinda-Sikka underlines the probability of farflung communications over much of the western Sudan during the first millennium.79 The Cyrenaican statuette from the second century A.D. also points to communication with the Mediterranean world from the beginning of this period as well. Such communications probably vehiculated a trade in commodities about which nothing as yet is known.

Was gold one of these? It may be worth recalling Garrard's finding that the gold trade from West Africa first became significant in Tunisia during the fourth century B.C.80 The sources of this gold remain unknown. Hitherto one only invoked the goldfields of Bure and Bambuk. The fact that the only early gold object found so far in West Africa is an earring from Jenne-Jeno dating to ca. 800 A.D. fits well with this view.81 But these goldfields are much further from Tunisia than from Morocco, while other potential goldfields in Niger and northern Nigeria are much closer to Carthage than Bure or Bambuk. In 1992 Regnoult discovered that there had formerly been significant gold-mining activities in the Sirba valley of Niger, i.e., in the Bura area.82 While it is far too early to conclude without further research and dating, it now looks quite possible that the gold of Carthage came from here and that Gao grew rich by trading it.83"

So there you have it. West Africans had been involved in trade much earlier than any so-called Arabized Northwest African contact!

-----------

PS - I suggest a serious look at this thread, posted by Thought. It only got a few responses, but it is insightful. It doesn't just 'tell stories', it analyzes evidence being uncovered in various African regions:
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/Forum8/HTML/001727.html

quote:

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Originally posted by ausar:

Know you want to replace the Moors bringing civlization to ancient Ghana with Hebrews that migrated into Western Africa. Why can't the indigenous Africans develop their own kingdoms without interaction from other people? This is nothing but a rehash of the Hamitic Hypothesis with a biblical twist.

One thing that argues against the so-called Jews founding Ghana is that the king was matrilineal and not patrilineal.

There are two books in Timbuktu called the Tarikh al Fattah and Tarikh al-Sudan that write about the ancient kingdom of Ghana. Both these manuscripts exist,and have been translated by scholars.

[This message has been edited by ausar (edited 22 June 2005).]

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quote:

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Originally posted by AMR1:
history of ancient ghana started in 8th century by moors, they were arabized people in North Africa from that time.

Ancient Ghana derived power and wealth from gold and the introduction of the camel during the Trans-Saharan trade increased the quantity of goods that were transported. Majority of the knowledge of Ghana comes from the Arab writers. Al-Hamdani, for example, describes Ghana as having the richest gold mines on earth. These mines were situated at Bambuk, on the upper Senegal river. The Soninke people also sold slaves, salt and copper in exchange for textiles, beads and finished goods. They built their capital city, Kumbi Saleh, right on the edge of the Sahara and the city quickly became the most dynamic and important southern terminus of the Saharan trade routes. Kumbi Saleh became the focus of all trade, with a systematic form of taxation. Later on Audaghust became another commercial centre.

The wealth of ancient Ghana is mythically explained in the tale of Bida, the black snake. This snake demanded an annual sacrifice in return for guaranteeing prosperity in the Kingdom, therefore each year a virgin was offered up for sacrifice, until one year, the fiancé (Mamadou Sarolle) of the intended victim rescued her. Feeling cheated of his sacrifice, Bida took his revenge on the region, a terrible drought took a hold of Ghana and gold mining began to decline. There is evidence found by archaeologists that confirms elements of the story, showing that until the 12th Century, sheep, cows and even goats were abundant in the region.

The route taken by traders of the Maghreb to Ghana started in North Africa in Tahert, coming down through Sjilmasa in Southern Morocco. From there the trail went south and inland, running parallel with the coast, then round to the south-east through Awdaghust and ending up in Kumbi Saleh - the royal town of Ancient Ghana. Inevitably the traders brought Islam with them.

The Islamic community at Kumbi Saleh remained a separate community quite a distance away from the King's palace. It had its own mosques and schools, but the King retained traditional beliefs. He drew on the bookkeeping and literary skills of Muslim scholars to help run the administration of the territory. The state of Takrur to the west had already adopted Islam as its official religion and established closer trading ties with North Africa.

There were numerous reasons for the decline of Ghana. The King lost his trading monopoly, at the same time drought began and had a long-term effect on the land and its ability to sustain cattle and cultivation. Within the Arab tradition, there is the knowledge that the Almoravid Muslims came from North Africa and invaded Ghana. Other interpretations are that the Almoravid influence was gradual and did not involve any form of military takeover.

In the 11th and 12th Century, new gold fields began to be mined at Bure (modern Guinea) out of commercial Ghana and new trade routes were opening up further east. Ghana then became the target of attacks by the Sosso ruler, Sumanguru. From this conflict in 1235 came the Malinke people under a new dynamic ruler, Sundiata Keita and soon became eclipsed by the Mali Empire of Sundiata.

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wrong,ghana was started by the mande speaking africans in 200 a.d. but it's history really goes further back

the mali civilization stated around 250 b.c.
by mande speakers as well.

What are you talking about? I never said the Moors brought civilization to Ghana! And no, this is no rehash of the Hamitic Hypothesis. The people who created Ancient Ghana were very black...I'm not debating that fact...it's their religion. It's a known fact that Timbuktu was once a Jewish nation before converting. The same thing holds true for Ghana. And I was wrong...the Za Dynasty didn't create Ghana. Though, they did come into power in 300 AD. The founder of the Dynasty was a man named Za el Yemeni, who was descended from Jews of Yemen. He established his capital city at Gao on the Niger River, in what is now the nation of Mali.

Now, according to the writings of Eldad the Danite, who was a famous Algerian Jewish author of the ninth century, Ghana was a Hebrew nation which followed the Law of Moses. The people of Ghana traced their roots to the Jews of the First Diaspora of 600 BC, who were forcibly expelled from Israel by the Assyrians. In support of this, Eldad reported that the Ghanans possessed the Torah, which was compiled before the Diaspora, but not the Talmud, which was compiled in Jerusalem and Babylon much later, during the early centuries of the Christian era.

In the 7th Century AD, all of North Africa above the Sahara desert was conquered by Arab armies. In the end, an extremely lucrative trade system developed with the Nigerian Kingdom of Ghana. The commodities first traded were gold and salt. This led to the appearance of regular caravan routes across the Sahara Desert to various cities in Ghana. These cities became wealthy.

Shortly after 1000 AD, the Kings of Ghana converted to Islam. As I said, initially, the conversions were mainly for the purpose of fostering trade with the powerful Muslim states of North Africa, and had little to do with faith. But once Islam took root in the area, its impact grew greatly. I don't why it's so hard for some of you to grasp this concept. It's happened all over the world throughout history. Then the Moors invaded Ghana and put it in decline. The Mandingo tribe, who had been citizens of Ghana rose up and overthrew the Moors...they set out to create an Empire greater than Ghana, they founded the Empire of Mali.

There are two books in Timbuktu called the Tarikh al Fattah and Tarikh al-Sudan that write about the ancient kingdom of Ghana. Both these manuscripts exist,and have been translated by scholars.

You're right. And the Tarikh al Fattah confirms what I was saying earlier. It talks about how the Kings of Ghana were persuaded to convert to Islam by the merchants of the city of Gao, who had already become wealthy and economically powerful. This is no different than what happens in America today...and all over the world. When lobbyists persuade the President to do things their representatives want.

Though, you can't be mad at Za Kasi (the king at the time) for his conversion to Islam....or call it weak. The North Africans were ardent Mohammedans in their day; and religion and economics were like co-partners....it's core operating in the city of Gao. The Muslims were dominating Ghana's vital trade links in North Africa and the Sahara, it was good for Ghana's security to be recognized as having a Mohammedan king.

Now, the black Hebrew kings of Ghana had two titles, Kayamaga (master of gold) and Ghana (war chief). Now Rudolph Windsor writes in From Babylon to Timbuktu that some Professor named Godbey says that 22 Hebrew kings reigned before the Hegira in 622 AD and 44 reigned by 790. He makes mention of the Tarikh el Fettach (History of the Researcher) which says that Kumbi had been the capital of the vast country of the Kayamaga, while the Tarikh es Sudan states that Kayamaga had been the name of the first king of the country. Now, during the Middle Ages, the name Ghana was not used to designate the country. The name of the country was Aoukar, and Ghana was just the title of the kings.

I didn't know anything about the Almoravids so I did a little google research on them. According to this... http://countrystudies.us/mauritania/6.htm the Almoravids did go to war with Ancient Ghana...

II. Origins.
· Around 300 A. D., several Soninke villages grouped together to form chiefdoms.
- These chiefdoms then formed the kingdom of Ghana.
- Ghana is the name the Soninke people called their ruler.
· There are several reasons for uniting the chiefdoms:
- The Soninke people made use of iron to seize more farming and grazing lands from their less organized
neighbors.
- They traded with Saharan nomads for horses.
* In years of drought, these nomads would have raided deep into the territory of the Soninke.
* The chiefdoms united to meet this threat.
- Thirdly, the chiefdoms got together to take advantage of trade.
* Located in the western Sahel they were midway between the desert. the main source of salt, and the territory
of Bambuk, the goldfields of the upper Senegal River.
* Initially the Soninke could supply the desert salt-producers of Taghaza with their surplus gain in exchange
for salt.
* When the camel was introduced in the fifth century, the trans-Saharan trade got a boost.
* In particular, it widened north African access to west African gold.
* As the trans-Saharan trade demand for gold increased, the Soninke were able to act as "middlemen"
in passing on Saharan salt to the gold-producers of the savannah woodland to their south.

III. The Trans-Sahara Trade.
· The camel was introduced into Africa from Central Asia sometime before 200.
- Camels can carry about 500 pounds as far as 25 miles a day.
- Can go for days without drinking, living on the water stored in their stomachs.
- In the 5th century, North African Berbers adopted a saddle for use on the camel.
* North African saddle had no direct effect on commercial operations, for a merchant usually walked
and guided the camel on foot.
* But the saddle gave the Berbers and later the Arabian inhabitants of North Africa a powerful political
and military advantage: they came to dominate the desert and to create lucrative routes across it.
* The Berbers determined who could enter the desert, and they levied heavy protection money on
merchant caravans.

· The Arba-Berber merchants from North Africa.
- Carried manufactured goods: silk and cotton cloth, beads, mirrors, dates, and salt from the Saharan oases
and mines to the Sudan.
- These products were exchanged for the much-coveted commodities of the West African savannah:
gold, ivory, gum, kola nuts, and slaves.

IV. The growth of the trans-Saharan trade had four important effects on West African society.
· The trade stimulated gold mining.
- Parts of modern-day Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana contained rich veins of gold.
- Both sexes shared in mining it.
- Men sank the shafts and hacked out gold-bearing rocks and crushed them, separating the gold from the soil.
- Women washed the gold in gourds.
- Men and women also panned for gold.
- Scholars have estimated that by 1000 A.D., nine tons of gold were exported to Europe, the Middle East,
and Egypt annually. (in 1937 with modern equipment this same region exported 21 tons).
· Second effect: West Africa’s second most valuable export was slaves.
- African slaves, like their early European and Asian counterparts were peoples captured in war.
- In the Muslim cities of North Africa, southern Europe, and southwestern Asia, the demand for household slaves
was high among the elite.
- Slaves were also needed to work gold and salt mines.
- Large numbers of black slaves were recruited through the trans-Saharan trade for Muslim military service.
* The armed forces of medieval Islamic regimes in Morocco and Egypt consisted largely of slaves.
- High death rates from disease, manumission, and the assimilation of some blacks into Muslim society meant
that the demand for slave remained high for centuries.
- Statistics for slave trade:
YEARS ANNUAL AVERAGE OF SLAVES TRADED TOTAL
650-800 A.D. 1,000 150,000
800-900 3,000 300,000
900-1100 8,700 1,740,000
1100-1400 5,500 1,650,000
1400-1500 4,300 430,000

- Race has little to due with the phenomenon of slavery at this point in history.
* The slaves exported from West Africa were all black, but Muslims also enslaved Caucasians who had been
purchased, seized in war, or kidnapped from Europe.
* West African kings who sold blacks to traders from the north also bought a few white slaves: Slavic,
British, and Turkish for their domestic needs.
· Third effect: it stimulated the development of urban centers in West Africa.
- Families that had profited from trade tended to congregate in the border zones between the savanna
and the desert.
* Acted as middlemen between the miners of the south and Muslim merchants from the north.
* By the early 13th century those families had become powerful black merchant dynasties.
- Muslim traders from the Mediterranean settled permanently in the trading depots.
- The concentration of peoples stimulated agriculture and craft industries.
- Jenne, Gao, Timbuktu became centers of the export-import trade.
- Kumbi, with between 15,000 and 20,000 inhabitants was probably the largest city in the western Sudan
in the 12th century.
· Fourth effect: introduction of Islam to West African society.
- By 11th century, African leaders of Gao, Timbuktu, and the administrators of the kingdom of Ghana had
accepted Islam

V. Expansion of the Ghana kingdom.
· The Soninke name for their king, war chief, aptly described the king’s major preoccupation in the 10th century.
- The Berbers established the important trading town of Awdaghust in the south-western Sahara.
- In 922 Ghana captured this town and now controlled the southern portion of a major caravan route.
· In the 10th century , the rulers of Ghana had extended kingdom almost to the Atlantic coast and captured
small kingdoms in the south and east.
· By 11th century the Kingdom of Ghana extended over a territory as large as Texas.
- No other African power could successfully challenge it.

VI. Government.
· All authority sprang from the King.
- The people considered him semi-sacred.
- Religious ceremonies and court rituals emphasized his sacredness and were intended to strengthen his authority.
- King’s position was hereditary in the matrilineal line, the heir of the ruling king was one of his sister’s sons.
· Council of ministers assisted the king.
- By the ninth century most of these ministers were Muslim.
· There were separate agencies in charge of taxation, royal property, foreigners, forests, and the army.
· Arabic was the language used in writing.
· The king and the people of Ghana clung to their ancestral religion.
· Judicial system.
- Description by a Muslim historian: "When a man is accused of denying a debt or of having
shed blood or some other crime, a headman (village chief) take a thin piece of wood, which
is sour and bitter to taste, and pours upon it some water which he then gives to the defendant to drink.
If the man vomits, his innocence is recognized and he is congratulated. If he does not vomit and the drink
remains in his stomach, the accusation is accepted as justified.
- Complicated cases were taken to the king who would make a judgment on the advise of Muslim legal experts.
· The royal court: Muslim accounts reveal a wealthy royal court.
- To maintain an elaborate court, the administrative machinery, and the government of the extensive territories
was expensive.
- King had four means of support.
* Royal estates, some hereditary some conquered in war, produced an annual revenue, mostly in the form
of foodstuffs for the royal household.
* Received an annual tribute from his subordinate chieftains.
* Received a custom duty on all goods entering and leaving the country.
* Largest source of income: king held a monopoly on gold.

VII. Classes in Ghana.
· The governing aristocracy: the king, his court, and Muslim administrators
· Merchant class.
* Some merchants very wealthy.
* Status based on blood and royal service.
· Considerably below merchants stood the farmers, cattle breeders, supervisors of the gold mines, and skilled
craftsmen and weavers.
· Slaves.
· Apart from then all these classes was the army.

VIII. Fall of Ghana.
· In 1076 A.D., the Almoravids, Muslim armies from the Islamic states in what is today Morocco defeated Ghana’s armies.
· Although they did not conquer Ghana, they did disrupt the trading networks across the Sahara.
· Ghana lost its domination of the trade in the 12th century because:
- Goldfields were opened up in the woodland savannah country to the south.
- At the same time trans-Sahara routes wee developed further east of Awdaghust.
* This gave the southern Soninke and Malinke chiefdoms of the south the chance to assert their independence.
* In the early 1200s, the southern Soninke chiefdom of Sosso took over most of former Ghana as well
as their southern neighbors, the Malinke.
*When the Malinke successful overthrew the tyrannical Sosso rulers, they established the great
Sudanese empire of Mali.
* The environment: by the early 13th century the land was worn out and the region could no longer
support a large settled population.

IX. Society in West Africa.
· West African emperors considered themselves special emissaries to the gods, even after converting to Islam.
- But the ruler’s power was not absolute, it rested on the ruler’s ability to persuade the people to accept his rule.
- Materially he sought to make his subjects wealthy while respecting customs and traditions.
· Extended family relationships cemented West African society.
- A person’s kin group was his first priority.
- Village elders were held in high esteem.
· Gender.
- Both men and women worked in agriculture.
- Men were the hunters, herders, and fishermen.
- Women were in charge of caring for the children, food preparation, and making clothes.
- Women were the major local traders in West Africa: exchanging goods between families,
villages, and small kingdoms.
· Dual-sex principle.
- Men managed the affairs of other men while women were in charge of other women.
- The Dahomean kingdom, every male official in the government had a female counterpart.
* This extended to religious observances.
- In various religious cults, women remained in power of other women.
· Practice of Polygamy.
- The custom calling for the male giving gifts to his prospective fiancee’s parents meant that only the higher
class men could afford to have more than one wife.
· Slaves that would be taken to the Americas were skilled agriculturalists with an egalitarian gender structure.
· Village life with the family at its center gave order and meaning to each individual.
- The land was worked to feed the family or the village and not to amass personal wealth.

X. Religion in West Africa.
· African religion was a dominant force in the life of West Africans.
- By the fifteen century, only the merchant class and the rulers of the kingdoms were affected by Islamic life.
- Most of the farmers living in villages retained their traditional African religion.
· Elements of West African religion.
- Spiritual forces were everywhere in nature.
- The spirits of ancestors needed to be respected.
- Shamans were the intermediaries between the material world and the spiritual world.
- Elaborate ceremonies that contained complex musical rhythms recreated creation myths and honored the dead.
http://www.gpc.edu/~gpabis/lecdoc1501/lec27-Africa_Ghana.html

Exploring Mali | Africa Homepage | Geographia Home

Although it cannot compete with the major safari countries for sheer natural spectacle, Mali is a nation of unusual interest and charm. Like Egypt, Mali is a country that is intimately related to a great river--in this case, the Niger. In addition, Mali is the location of some of the continent's most interesting cultural sites. Legendary Timbuktu is located here, and in the center of the country is the magnificently dramatic Bandiagara escarpment, home to the fascinating culture of the Dogon.

Location, Geography & Climate

Mali, the largest country in West Africa, is bordered by seven other states: Algeria lies to the north and northeast, Niger to the east, Burkina Faso to the southeast and, with the Ivory Coast, to the south. On the west are Senegal and Mauritania.

Mali is shaped a bit like a butterfly, leaning to the northwest, with a much smaller left than right wing. The larger northwestern region of the country, which extends into the Sahara, is almost entirely arid desert or semidesert. In the central region, known as the Sahel, life follows the Niger River's annual flood cycle, with high water between August and November. In the southwestern area, rainfall and rivers are more plentiful, and this region is marginally more lush than the rest of the country. Mali's single most important geographic feature is undoubtedly the great Niger River, which traverses both the Sahel and the southeastern section of the country. The Niger, like the Nile, is both a critical source of sustenance and a major transportation artery--and in this latter capacity it is an excellent venue for boat travel.

Although most of Mali experiences only negligible rainfall, the 'rainy' season in the south extends from June through September.

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History & People

Although Mali is today one of the poorest countries in the world, it has a long and illustrious past as an integral part of great African empires. The first of these empires was the empire of Ghana, which from the 4th to the 11th century controlled the trans-Saharan caravan routes. Ghana fell under invasions by the Muslim Almoravids, but it was soon supplanted by a the Mandinka empire of Mali. Mali reached its pinnacle of power and wealth during the 14th century, extending over almost all of West Africa and controlling virtually all of the rich trans-Saharan gold trade. It was during this period that Mali's great cities, Timbuktu and Djenne, became fabled centers of wealth, learning, and culture. Mali's power didn't last much longer. In the 15th century it fell to the Songhai, who had established their own capital at Gao. The Songhai held sway until the end of the 16th century, their empire collapsed under both internal and external pressures. The end of the Songhai empire also marked the conclusion of the regions history as a trading centre, for the trans-Saharan trade routes quickly lost their vitality after the establishment of sea routes by Europeans.

In the late nineteenth century, Mali became a French colony, and in 1960 it became independent. The country has suffered from periods of internal and external strife, as well as from an extended drought in the early 1970s, but today it appears to by moving toward a stable, multi-party democratic government.

Mali's population comprises a number of different peoples, including the Bambara (who are the largest single segment), the Songhai, Mandinka, Senoufo, Fula, and Dogon. The last of these groups, the Dogon, are world-renowned for their artwork, and a visit to their traditional cliffside villages is a fascinating experience. The majority of Mali's people are Muslim, and the official language is French. Bambara, however, is the country's true lingua franca.

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The Mosque of Djenne, Mali
(Fine Art Print Available)
Djenné, the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa is situated on the floodlands of the Niger and Bani rivers, 354 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of Timbuktu. Founded by merchants around 800 AD (near the site of an older city dating from 250BC), Djenné flourished as a meeting place for traders from the deserts of Sudan and the tropical forests of Guinea. Captured by the Songhai emperor Sonni 'Ali in 1468, it developed into Mali's most important trading center during the 16th century. The city thrived because of its direct connection by river with Timbuktu and from its situation at the head of trade routes leading to gold and salt mines. Between 1591 and 1780, Djenné was controlled by Moroccan kings and during these years its markets further expanded, featuring products from throughout the vast regions of North and Central Africa. In 1861 the city was conquered by the Tukulor emperor al-Hajj 'Umar and was then occupied by the French in 1893. Thereafter, its commercial functions were taken over by the town of Mopti, which is situated at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers, 90 kilometers to the northeast. Djenné is now an agricultural trade center, of diminished importance, with several beautiful examples of Muslim architecture, including its Great Mosque.

In addition to its commercial importance, Djenné, was also known as a center of Islamic learning and pilgrimage, attracting students and pilgrims from all over West Africa. Its Great Mosque dominates the large market square of Djenné. Tradition has it that the first mosque was built in 1240 by the sultan Koi Kunboro, who converted to Islam and turned his palace into a mosque. Very little is known about the appearance of the first mosque, but it was considered too sumptuous by Sheikh Amadou, the ruler of Djenné in the early nineteenth century. The Sheikh built a second mosque in the 1830's and allowed the first one to fall into disrepair. The present mosque, begun in 1906 and completed in 1907, was designed by the architect Ismaila Traoré, head of Djenné's guild of masons. At the time, Mali was controlled by the French, who may have offered some financial and political support for the construction of the mosque and a nearby religious school.

The Great Mosque is built on a raised plinth platform of rectangular sun-dried mud bricks that are held together by mud mortar and plastered over with mud. The walls vary in thickness between sixteen and twenty-four inches, depending upon their height. These massive walls are necessary in order to bear the weight of the tall structure and also provide insulation from the sun's heat. During the day, the walls gradually warm up from the outside; at night, they cool down again. This helps the interior of the mosque to stay cool all day long. The Great Mosque also has roof vents with ceramic caps. These caps, made by the town's women, can be removed at night to ventilate the interior spaces.

Mud mosque of Djenne
(Fine Art Print Available)

Djenné's masons have integrated palm wood scaffolding into the building's construction, not as beams, but as supports for the workers who apply plaster during the annual spring festival to restore the mosque. In addition, the palm beams minimize the stress that comes from the extreme temperature and humidity changes that take place during the year. The facade of the mosque has the same structure and building materials as a traditional house in Djenné and includes three massive towers, each topped with a spire capped by an ostrich egg (these ostrich eggs symbolize fertility and purity).

Although the Great Mosque incorporates architectural elements found in mosques throughout the Islamic world, it reflects the aesthetics and materials used for centuries by the people of Djenné. Its use of local materials, such as mud and palm wood, its incorporation of traditional architectural styles, and its adaptation to the hot climate of West Africa are expressions of its elegant connection to the local environment. Such earthen architecture, which is found throughout Mali, can last for centuries if regularly maintained.

The repair or maintenance of the Great Mosque is carried out by the senior masons, who also coordinate the annual spring replastering. Many of the citizens of Djenné work to prepare banco (mud mixed with rice husks) for the event. It may be compared to a community fair "with much festivity and laughter," as described by a visitor in 1987:

"Every spring Djenné's mosque is replastered. This is a festival at once awesome, messy, meticulous, and fun. For weeks beforehand mud is cured. Low vats of the sticky mixture are periodically churned by barefoot boys. The night before the plastering, moonlit streets echo with chants, switch-pitch drums, and lilting flutes. A high whistle blows three short beats. On the fourth, perfectly cued, a hundred voices roar, and the throng sets off on a massive mud-fetch. By dawn the actual replastering has been underway for some time. Crowds of young women, heads erect under the burden of buckets brimming with water, approach the mosque. Other teams, bringing mud, charge shouting through the huge main square and swarm across the mosque's terrace. Mixing work and play, young boys dash everywhere, some caked with mud from head to toe."

In 1988, the old Town of Djenné and its Great Mosque were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Market day at the Djenne mosque
(Fine Art Print Available)

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Jenne-jeno, an ancient African city

Susan Keech McIntosh and Roderick J. McIntosh

Roderick and Susan McIntosh excavated at Jenne-jeno and neighboring sites in 1977 and 1981 and returned in 1994 for coring and more survey, with funding from the National Science Foundation of the United States, the American Association of University Women, and the National Geographic Society (1994). This research formed the basis of their Ph.D. dissertations at Cambridge University and the University of California at Santa Barbara, respectively. The McIntoshes have published two monographs and numerous articles on their archaeological research in the Middle Niger. They are professors of anthropology at Rice University in Houston, Texas, and they continue to collaborate with Malian colleagues from the Institut des Sciences Humaines on research along the Middle Niger.

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For centuries, the upper Inland Niger Delta of the Middle Niger between modern Mopti and Segou has been a vital crossroads for trade. Historical sources, such as the 1828 account of the French explorer Rene Caillié, as well as local Tarikhs (histories written in Arabic) detail for us the central role that Jenne played in the commercial activities of the Western Sudan during the last 500 years. The seventeenth century author of the Tarikh es-Sudan, al-Sadi, wrote that "it is because of this blessed town that camel caravans come to Timbuktu from all points of the horizon". In the famous "Golden Trade of the Moors", gold from mines far to the south was transported overland to Jenne, then trans-shipped on broad-bottom canoes (pirogues) to Timbuktu, and thence by camel to markets in North Africa and Europe. Leo Africanus reported in 1512 that the extensive boat trade on the Middle Niger involved massive amounts of cereals and dried fish shipped from Jenne to provision arid Timbuktu. Today, the stunning mud architecture of Jenne in distinctive Sudanic style is a legacy of its early trade ties with North Africa.

Three kilometers to the southeast, the large mound called Jenne-jeno (ancient Jenne) or Djoboro is claimed by oral traditions as the original settlement of Jenne. Barren and carpeted by a thick layer of broken pottery, Jenne-jeno lay mute for decades, its history and significance totally unknown. Scientific excavations in the 1970's and 1980's revealed that the mound is composed of over five meters of debris accumulated during sixteen centuries of occupation that began c. 200 B.C.E. These excavations, in addition to more than doubling the period of known history for this region, provided some surprises regarding the local development of society. The results indicated that earlier assumptions about the emergence of complex social organization in urban settlements and the development of long-distance trade as innovations appearing only after the arrival of the Arabs in North Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries were incorrect. The archaeology of Jenne- jeno and the surrounding area clearly showed an early, indigenous growth of trade and social complexity. The importance of this discovery has resulted in the entry of Jenne- jeno, along with Jenne, on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

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The early settlement at Jenne-jeno.

It appears that permanent settlement first became possible in the upper Inland Niger Delta in about the third century B.C.E. Prior to that time, the flood regime of the Niger was apparently much more active, meaning that the annual floodwaters rose higher and perhaps stayed longer than they do today, such that there was no high land that regularly escaped inundation. Under these wetter circumstances, diseases carried by insects, especially tsetse fly, would have discouraged occupation. Between 200 B.C.E. and 100 C.E., the Sahel experienced significant dry episodes, that were part of the general drying trend seriously underway since 1000 B.C.E. Prior to that time, significant numbers of herders and farmers lived in what is today the southern Sahara desert, where they raised cattle, sheep and goat, grew millet, hunted, and fished in an environment of shallow lakes and grassy plains. As the environment became markedly drier after 1000 B.C.E., these populations moved southward with their stock in search of more reliable water sources. Oral traditions of groups from the Serer and Wolof of Senegal to the Soninke of Mali trace their origins back to regions of southern Mauritania that are now desert. As these stone-tool-using populations slowly moved along southward-draining river systems, they found various more congenial environments. One of these was the great interior floodplain of the Middle Niger, with its rich alluvial soil and a flood regime that was well-suited to the cultivation of rice.

The earliest deposits, nearly six meters deep at Jenne- jeno have yielded the hulls of domesticated rice, sorghum, millet, and various wild swamp grasses. The population that settled at Jenne-jeno used and worked iron, fashioning the metal into both jewelry and tools. This is interesting , since there are no sources of iron ore in the floodplain. The earliest inhabitants of Jenne-jeno were already trading with areas outside the region. They also imported stone grinders and beads. The presence of two Roman or Hellenistic beads in the early levels suggests that a few very small trade goods were reaching West Africa, probably after changing hands through many intermediaries. We have not detected any evidence of influences from the Mediterranean world on the local societies at this time.
The original settlement appears to have occurred on a small patch of relatively high ground, and was probably restricted to a few circular huts of straw coated with mud daub. We find many pieces of burnt daub with mat impressions on them in the earliest levels. The pottery associated with this early material is from small, finely-made vessels with thin walls. Artifacts and housing material of this kind persist until c. 450 C.E., occurring over progressive larger area of Jenne-jeno. This indicates that the site was growing larger. In fact, by 450 C.E., the settlement had expanded to at least 25 hectares (over 60 acres).

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Jenne-jeno's floruit: 450-1100 C.E.

In the deposits dated from the fifth century, there are definite indications that the organization of society is changing. We find organized cemeteries, with interments in large burial urns as well as inhumations outside of urns in simple pits, on the edge of the settlement. From an excavation unit on the western edge of Jenne-jeno, we found evidence that the site was enlarged by quarrying clay from the floodplain and mounding it at the edge of the site New trade items appear, such as copper, imported from sources a minimum of several hundred kilometers away, and gold from even more distance mines. A smithy was installed near one of our central excavation units around 800 C.E. to mold copper and bronze into ornaments, and to forge iron. Smithing continued in this locale for the next 600 years, suggesting that craftsmen had become organized in castes and operated in specific locales, much as we see in Jenne today.

The round houses at Jenne-jeno were constructed with tauf, or puddled mud, foundations, from the fifth to the ninth century. During this time, the settlement continued to grow, reaching its maximum area of 33 hectares by 850 C.E. We know that this is so because sherds of the distinctive painted pottery that was produced at Jenne-jeno only between 450-850 C.E. are present in all our excavation units, even those near the edge of the mound. And we find them at the neighboring mound of Hambarketolo, too, suggesting that these two connected sites totaling 41 hectares (100 acres) functioned as part of a single town complex

In the ninth century, two noticeable changes occur: tauf house foundations are replaced by cylindrical brick architecture, and painted pottery is replaced by pottery with impressed and stamped decoration. The source of these novelties is unknown, although we can say that they did not involve any fundamental shift in the form or general layout of either houses or pottery. So it is unlikely that any major change in the ethnic composition of Jenne-jeno was associated with the changes. Change with continuity was the prevailing pattern.

One of the earliest structures built using the new cylindrical brick technology was apparently the city wall, which was 3.7 meters wide at its base and ran almost two kilometers around the town. All these indications of increasingly complex social organization are particularly important in helping us understand the indigenous context of the Empire of Ghana, an influential confederation that consolidated power within large areas to the north and west of the Inland Niger Delta sometime after 500 C.E.. To date, Jenne-jeno provides our only insight into the nature of change and complexity in the Sahel prior to the establishment of the trans-Saharan trade. Although some excavations have been conducted at the presumed capital of Ghana, Kumbi Saleh (in southeastern Mauritania), these focused on the stone-built ruins dating to the period of the trans-Saharan trade.

As we currently understand the archaeology of the entire Jenne region, where over 60 archaeological sites rise from the floodplain within a 4 kilometer radius of the modern town, many of these sites were occupied at the time of Jenne-jeno's floruit between 800-1000 C.E.. We have suggested that this extraordinary settlement clustering resulted from a clumping of population around a rare conjunction of highly desirable features: excellent rice-growing soils, levees for pasture in the flood season, deep basin for pasture in the dry season and access to both major river channels and the entire inland system of secondary and tertiary marigots from communication and trade.

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Decline: C.E. 1200-1400

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the first unambiguous evidence of North African or Islamic influences appears at Jenne-jeno in the form of brass, spindle whorls, and rectilinear houses. This occurs within a century of the traditional date of 1180 C.E. for the conversion of Jenne's king (Koi) Konboro to Islam, according to the Tarikh es-Sudan. After this point, Jenne-jeno begins a 200-year long period of decline and gradual abandonment, before it becomes a ghost town by 1400. We can speculate that Jenne-jeno declined at the expense of Jenne, perhaps related to the ascendancy of the new religion, Islam, over traditional practice. The continued practice of urn burial at Jenne-jeno through the fourteenth century tells us that many of the site's occupants did not convert to Islam. The production of terracotta statuettes in great numbers throughout the period and even into the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries elsewhere in the Inland Niger Delta may mark loci of resistance, within the context of traditional religious practice, to Islam or the leaders who practiced it. Whatever the cause of Jenne-jeno's abandonment, it was part of a larger process whereby most of the settlements occupied around Jenne in 1000 C.E. lay deserted by 1400. What caused such a realignment of the local population? Again, we can only speculate. Some people likely converted to Islam and moved to Jenne, where wealth and commercial opportunities were increasingly concentrated. But there is also the fact that the climate grew increasingly dry from 1200 C.E., causing tremendous political upheavals further north, and prompting virtual abandonment of whole regions (e.g., the Mema, studied by Malian archaeologist Tereba Togola) that could no longer sustain herds and agriculture. Some, if not all, of these factors were probably implicated in the decline of Jenne-jeno.

Jenne-jeno is easy to reach from Jenne, and its surface traces of ancient houses and pottery are evocative of its rich history. Peering into the deep erosion gullies that scar the surface, one literally looks backward in time over 1000 years. But please remember, only a small part of the puzzle of the history of Jenne-jeno has been put together so far. All the artifacts you see are clues for the archaeologists who will work in future years to complete the puzzle.

Help us safeguard Mali's rich heritage for all people by observing
the following rules when you visit the site:

PLEASE DO NOT MOVE OR REMOVE ANY ARTIFACTS FROM ANYWHERE ON JENNE-JENO OR ANY OTHER SITE

PLEASE DO NOT BUY OR COLLECT ARTIFACTS OR STATUETTES REMOVED FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES. These materials are obtained by illegal digging at local sites, involving the destruction of irreplaceable information about Mali's heritage.

BE AWARE THAT ARTIFACTS AND STATUETTES ARE PROTECTED UNDER MALI'S ANTIQUITIES LAWS. There are severe penalties for removing and attempting to export artifacts and statuettes without official permission.

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correction for above,jenne was founded in 250 b.c. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~anth/arch/brochure/

I have been searching for a contact for Paul Barton. In trying to email you directly to see if you had his information, I noticed that you are in Santa Barbara.

I am, too.

If anyone has an email for Mr. Barton, I would greatly appreciate it.

...it is one of the curiosities of African historiography that "origins" of various African peoples are so often sought outside Africa. As with Egypt, this has something to do with the lamentable fact that outsiders could never quite bring themselves to believe that native Africans were anything but primitive, a notion reinforced to some degree by African scholars themselves after thy became Islamicized. Afther that, it was always more noble to have an origin that placed you people closer to the epicenter of Islam itself, and any African prince of any standing had perforce to have come from the East...

...The Arabs were different. They came to pludner too, but also on to stay. Two waves of Arab invaders headed along the Maghreb coast. The first wave, which came mostly from Yemen in the seventh century A.D., was part of the astonishing flowering of Islamic culture, immigrants full of zeal for spreading Mohammed's newly revealed Word. But although many of the leftovers of half a dozen kingdoms-- Romanized settlers, Carthaginian and Phoenixian remnants, Jews and Judaized Berbers-- theirs was nevertheless primarily a military invasion and hardly penetrated beyond the coastal mountains, and thus had no great effect on the composition of the interior population of their way of life.

The second Arab wave, the invasion of the tribal confederation called Beni Hilal in 1050 and the subsequent rampages of another such group, the Beni Soleim, was mainly a matter of pillage. "It was an evil day for North Africa when, in the 11th century, the Beni Hilal poured out of Egypt westwards, along the coast," wrote the historian of North Africa Edward Bovill. "Knowing no home but a tent and abhorring any more lasting structure [they] systematically pillaged every town and destroyed every solild building they encountered. Cities, towns, aqueducts, dams, cisterns, and bridges went down before a savage horde far more destructive than any of the earlier invaders of the country. Land dependent on irrigation went out of cultivation and turned to desert. Even great expanses of forest were destroyed by the invaders and their herds, thus further aggravating the water problem by hastening surface run-off. Unlike the earlier Arab invaders of the seventh and eighth centuries, the Beni Hilal gave the country nothing." This harsh judgment is not just a latter-day European opinion: As early as 1360 the historian Ibn Khaldun described the Hilal as "a plague of locusts," though he admitted their epic poetry was pretty enough. One can trace the desertification fo th north, its loss of forest cover and water sources, to the destructive effects of the Beni Hilal.

No part of the desert was unaffected by the Arab invasions, and their effects were felt far beyond the desert itself. Even the Nmadi, the hunter-gatherers of the Adrar in Mauritania, living as they still do in the most primitive way, fell into vassalage under their newly Arabized neighbors. The gold and silversmiths of the desert blended almost completely into the Arabized tribes. South of the Sahara, tribes like the Dogon, who now live high in the cliffs of Bandiagara, took up refuge in that inaccessible place because of the invasions. Those among the Berbers of the coastal plains who resisted the invasions and the forced conversions to Islam were driven into the desert. As they fled, the leftover native Nilosaharans, who had been there since the verdant times, retreated to the Sahel, the Niger, and Lake Chad. The Buduma people who live on the shores of Lake Chad as fishermen but who until recently had a piratical reputation that made them much feared in the region are almost certainly modern descendants of these early refugees, and from the evidence of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelers the lives they were living until the latter part of the nineteenth-century were very similar to the patterns developed so many centuries earlier in the deeper Sahara.

The Arabs--and the Muslim proselytizers--followed the retreating Berbers into and across the desert, until every part of the Sahara had its population of Arabs. Even there, though, nothing is as simple as it first sounds, and "Arab" has itself become slippery of difinition. There are Arabs in the Sahara who assert a more or less pure Arab ethnicity--in the western Sahara, for example, the Beni Maghfar and Beni Hassan claim direct descent from the invaders, and Hassaniya, the Arabic dialect of the Beni Hassan, has become the common language of the region. But Arab doesn't necessarily imply ethnicity--it commonly refers also to the warrior or aristocratic classes, many of them non-Arab in origin. In addition, other Sharan grouops, like the Kunta of the southwest, assert on thin evidence that they are Arabs because they claim descent from an earlier Arab conqueror of North Africa, 'Uqba ben Nafi. And some Berber clains distinguish themselves as "Arabs of the veil," because in their view their ancestors originally came from southern Arabia in pre-Islamic times. Few inhabitants of the deep desert escaped conversion to Islam. The Tuareg resisted for many centuries (and succeeded to re-making Islam in their own idiosyncratic way), and the Tubu in the Tibesti gave up the fight only in the twentieth century, after mor ethan a thousand years of often fierce resistance, but in the end, they all succumbed.

...On the southern fringes of the desert were the greatest empires of Old Africa, whose stories are only now beginning to emerge in their fullness. The settled cultures along the southern rim date as far back as Egypt, and owe their flowereing at least in part, to the same grim fact of cultural change: Adversity bred ingenuity, ingenuity bred technology and thus an increasing population, population bred organized politics, and the Sahara, in this progression, bred empire. These ancient African empires, so little known in the West, regarded the Sahara quite differently from the way northerners did. For the Egyptians and the legions of invaders from the north, the desert was a barrier, formidable and intimidating. For the empires in the south, it was both a protection and an opportunity. They grew rich trading first with the Egyptians and then with the Caliphates fo the north, but also by remaining unknown, remote, and therefore unconquered.

I have not read Marq Deviller's book on the Sahara,but I have read his book entitled Into Africa. Nice book that covers all of African history from East to West to North and South. Thanks for this excerpt.

Most of the modern Libyans today are desendants of the Bani Hilal and Bani Sulaim that were brought into Egypt by the Fatimid Caliph.